


Choice

by Icelandic_Flutterby



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 09:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10874391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icelandic_Flutterby/pseuds/Icelandic_Flutterby
Summary: Arwen goes to say goodbye to Bilbo Baggins. She did not ask for advice, but Bilbo is old enough that he feels entitled to give one, whether the recipient wants it or not.





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

> I do have hover translation :)

_Elrond:_ _"Arwen. Tollen i lû. I chair gwannar na Valannor. Si bado, no círar."_  
_Arwen: "I've made my choice."_  
_Elrond: "He is not coming back. Why do you linger when there is no hope?"_  
_Arwen: "There is still hope."_  
_Elrond: "If Aragorn survives this war, you will still be parted."_  
_Elrond: "If Sauron is defeated, and Aragorn made king and all that you hoped for comes true… you will still have to taste the bitterness of mortality."_  
_**[Arwen's face changes and we see Aragorn lying dead, Arwen standing next to him, crying.]**_  
_Elrond: "Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die. And there will be no comfort for you. No comfort to ease the pain of his passing."_  
_Elrond: "He will come to death. An image of the splendor of the kings of men in glory, undimmed before the breaking of the world."_  
_Elrond: "But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt. As night falling winter has come without a star."_  
__****[Arwen is walking alone in empty woods, dressed in black.]  
_Elrond: "Here you will dwell, bound to your grief, under the fading trees, until all the world has changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent."_  
__**[The scene comes back to Rivendell and we see Arwen's face. Tears fall from her eyes and she gasps.]  
** _Elrond: "Arwen… there is nothing for you here, only death."_  
_Elrond:_ _"Ah im, ú erin veleth lîn?"_  
_Arwen:_ _"Gerich veleth nîn, ada."_  
  
_._._._  
  
Arwen had told her father she would leave. And she’d meant it, but doubt filled her mind and heart that it was truly the path meant for her. She knew already it was not the path she yearned for. She had already prepared to leave, her brothers watching silently from across the hallway. Erestor and Lindor and Glorfindel all stood nearby also, but she looked at none of them. Her father would bid them leave also. She would see them, sooner or later.  
  
Her eyes flickered up, glancing out towards the balcony. There was one person she would not see again. She looked down at her mostly packed belongings. Should she finish? No, she thought, the luggage would still be there when she returned from speaking to him. She stood up, and walking briskly out of her room. She wondered distantly if she’d startled her silent “bodyguards,” but found she did not care much to find out. Even so, she heard them follow her.  
  
None of them spoke on the walk over. They all knew she did not want to. That did not mean she didn’t know of their surprise of being stood in front of Bilbo Baggins’ quarters. She almost swallowed nervously, but why would she be nervous? She was simply saying goodbye to an old friend. She raised her hand and knocked. Waiting patiently for invitation inside.  
  
When she had it, she did not hesitate entering, and neither did her silent companions. They all surveyed Bilbo as he sat in his armchair, smoking a pipe. She smiled for the first time this evening. The scene in front of her had become familiar, in the past couple of decades. Her smile dimmed a little, she would miss it. She walked closer, and dropped to sit on the floor beside him. She opened to speak, but Bilbo beat her to it.  
  
__  
“All that is Gold does not glitter.”  
  
  
He said softly. She smiled. She knew this one, the one that Bilbo had written of her Aragorn. Bilbo coughed to clear his throat, and began anew.  
__  
  
“All that is gold does not glitter;  
all that is long does not last;”  
  
  
All of the elves present frowned in confusion. That was not how they remembered the poem having continued.  
__  
  
“All that is old does not wither;  
not all that is over is past.”  
  
  
Arwen leaned forward eagerly. It was becoming ever rarer to hear a new poem from Bilbo, but she thought that she felt in her heart that this was not a new one.  
__  
  
“Not all that have fallen are vanquished;  
a king may yet be without crown,  
A blade that was broken be brandished;  
and towers that were strong may fall down.”  
  
  
She leaned back, pale and wide-eyed. She glanced in the mirror behind Bilbo and saw that the others did not seem to be much better. Lindor especially seemed shocked, Erestor considering, and her dear brothers were each gnawing on their lips.  
  
“Bilbo,” she said softly, a little hopelessly. Her ears tilted down. “Are you? Are you suggesting I go against my father’s wishes?” she asked. Bilbo hummed.  
  
“No, not quite.” He said. “My dear, your father has very good reasons for wanting you to leave. You have a very good reason for wanting to stay.” He told her. She blinked, confusion colouring her face. Bilbo, unbothered, continued. “50 years I thought I knew what I wanted.” He told her, which only confused her more. “Half a year where I did as I was told. A year and a half I did as I willed.” He said, and Lindor’s eyes widened in realisation. “80 more I did naught but yearn for what I wanted, for the one I wanted, for those I could never see again. Half a year where I intended to do as I willed, and twenty where I could not anymore.”  
  
Arwen looked at him, ears pointed downward and lips trembling in sadness. “Bilbo?” she asked tearfully.  
“Your father never got many choices.” Arwen blinked, lost again. “Certainly, he got a few, and the few he got where important, I’m sure you know of which choices I speak.” She did; he could only be speaking of the choice to remain elven or to become mortal, the choice that lay before her now. But what did that have to do with Bilbo’s lifetime?  
  
“Your father assumes your choice is of the same nature,” Bilbo told her. “and in a sense, it _is_. But it also is really not.” She tilted her head in silent question. “Yours is the choice of Lúthien,” he told her, and her face lightened in realisation. “It is not a question of whether you are better suited to follow your elven nature or your mortal one. It is a question of how well you will live without your heart’s desire. Of whether you have to at all.”  
  
They silently regarded each other for a moment, and the others shifted awkwardly, uncertainly, unwilling to intrude on a clearly private moment – conversation, but unable – unwilling to leave now, not when Bilbo spoke with such clarity, as he hadn’t done for months.  
  
“You speak from experience.” Arwen whispered.  
  
“Of a kind.” Bilbo agreed. “I got no choice, in the end.”  
  
“You loved him?” she asked, knowing only that “he” had been at the Quest, and that Bilbo never spoke of him.  
  
“Yes.” Bilbo said. “But he died, before I could find that out.” Elladan, secret romantic that he was, gasped in shock, ears trembling and turning downward in sadness. “Oh, hush you, youngling!” Bilbo scolded him gently. “I’ve long grown used to the empty space in my heart.” He turned to Arwen again, and even gentler than before spoke.  
  
“My dear, you currently have two paths before you. You need to know what taking each one means.” He leaned back in his chair, folded his hands over hers, smiled. “If you choose to go to Valinor, there are two things you need to know.” Arwen nodded dutifully. “The first is that you will not know how Aragorn fares in this war. That you will never know how he fares again. For a while, there might be elves who come from this land, and bring you news, but it will never be their priority, and their news will always be outdated. If you leave, you will never again know the man that _is_ Aragorn, only the man that he was.”  
  
Arwen nodded, eyes downcast. “Secondly, if you leave, know that you can never come back.” Why he felt the need to tell her that, as if she didn’t already know that, eluded her, but Glorfindel understood, and nodded gravely.  
  
“If you stay,” Bilbo said, softly enough that they all had to strain a little to hear him, “there is only one thing you need to know;” Arwen, unknowingly breathed in deep and then held it, excited and terrified and any number of emotions she knew not of to name bundled together tight in her chest as she waited for him to continue.  
  
“You can change your mind.”  
  
She exhaled, surprise and doubt clear on her face. “What?” Elrohir asked disbelievingly, before she could. Bilbo laughed at the surprise of the elves.  
  
“If you decide to stay,” Bilbo clarified, “you can wait until you know whether Aragorn lived, or whether he died, and then you can again choose to stay or leave. If you then choose to stay, you can wait until he has grown old, and again choose to stay or leave, if then you choose to stay; you can choose whether to die by his side or to leave when he dies.” He took a deep puff of his pipe, and when had he lit that? And said, rather cheerfully, “and so on and so forth. But the moment you sail, you cannot change your mind.”  
  
For what seemed, even to the elves, a small eternity, they all sat still and silently. Considering Bilbo’s words. Eventually, Arwen stirred. “Thank you, Bilbo.” She said, kissed his hands, stood up and left. She did not wait to see if she was followed, and indeed she was not.  
  
  
She had to speak with her father again, and let him know that she had decided to postpone her choice.

**Author's Note:**

> Arwen. Tollen i lû. I chair gwannar na Valannor. Si bado, no círar = Arwen. It is time. The ships are leaving for Valinor. Go now, before it is too late.
> 
> Ah im, ú erin veleth lîn? = Do I not also have your love?
> 
> Gerich veleth nîn, = You have my love, father


End file.
